Finding the chase and cutting to it

Back in 2006, I bought a naked (that means un-faired) CG125K6 and learnt to ride a motorbike. Like many, I found this bike easiest to ride but, like many, 3 months after gaining my license bought my semi-faired GSF650SAK5 (that’s a 2005 656cc Suzuki Bandit).

After a couple of years, and 14,000 miles, I started looking at fully faired bikes. My Bandit was lovely, pictured above, so I could really take my time and find the perfect bike.  My 650 Bandit was lovely, but I do long journeys, several hundred miles in a day and the bandit was heavy and didn’t offer much in the way of protection from the elements.  I wanted a tourer.

Since Dec 2008 I have tried (in order) Kawasaki KLX250, BMW F800 ST. Suzuki GSF 1250 SAK8 GT (bigger version of mine, with luggage, very nice), Suzuki 2005 Hayabusa (loved), Triumph Daytona 675 (liked but didn’t feel good for long journeys), a 2009 Honda CBR1000RR aka Fireblade (mind blowing, really incredible but hard to ride under 30mph), a 2008 Hayabusa, a brand new BMW K1300S and BMW F650GS. I sat on a few that were too big and on others that didn’t feel right in the show room.  But those were the ones I took out on the UK highways and byways.

My bandit was hard to beat – it had luggage and heated grips, ABS, there was no hurry.  I could find the perfect bike in my own time and put by the money for the new bike.  I figured Jan 2011 at the earliest.

In my everyday life, I was sharpening my skills with lots of miles and IAM training. I belong to SAM and there are a great variety of bikes in the group. Some are lucky have have many bikes, it’s going to be a while before I ever get to that stage 🙂

Learning to ride naked again

The 2nd September, one of the few rainy nights for ages, I made a bad decision. A mile from home, with what seemed like ample in the tank, I rode past the last petrol station and the last 700yds before home. For the 2nd night, the A14 had been closed for some bridge inspection work and I was looking forward to drying off at home. 500yds into the road works, my tank ran dry.

Appreciating what had happened and what need to be done, I pushed the bike on to the grass verge, put it on its side stand, got the loose belonging off it, switch on the parking and hazard lights (my hazards turned off the parking lights which I wasn’t expecting, but it was lit like a Christmas tree, so…), and started to walk on while talking to my husband about bringing a jerry can with him when he brought the car to pick me up. I had my back to the bike when I heard a loud bang behind me; I had my helmet on, it had to be loud for me to hear it.

Two cars had hit each other and one of them had knocked my bike over. Stepping over the exhaust, I went to get details, and sort out getting my bike back on to its wheels. A long night saw my bike being carried home on a recovery vehicle (thanks Mike), and in the morning, I really believed it could be fixed and be back on the road sometime this year.

My insurance covers a loan bike: in due course a blue naked 650 K7 Bandit turned up on my doorstep. It was restricted too, but the lack of fairing was disconcerting. This bike was not going to be fit as a replacement for my own bandit – no fairing, no ABS, I drive on dual carriage way (did I mention the 33bhp too – my bike had been a git with the restriction on it).

I have to say, I was very pleasantly surprised. Needless to say, the accident (even though I’d not been injured in any way) had left me shaken. This naked bandit was fun, easy and a lot lighter than my own bandit. It was responsive and nimble and confidence inspiring. I nearly killed myself on an overtake the first ride as I was NOT expecting it to be restricted, yet if you accommodated that fact, the bike was good. The wind was not the problem I thought it would be and I did ride it on some windy days. For a long journey, it would be an issue, however the lack of fairing allows you to cut through the air really easily. It’s tiring on your arms and your head does get buffeted, but the first bend takes your mind off it.

So, as my bike has been written off, I’ve bought the 2008 busa. It’s glorious 😀 sublime, I am the slowest person on a 1300cc machine on the planet (possibly ever), but the machine is effortless, be it filtering or cruising, or taking a B road bend.

If I could have two bikes though, I’d like something naked too 😀